Many Tottenham Hotspur fans were resigned to the fact that the club may lose another massive gem within their ranks in center midfielder Lucas Bergvall, not long after Luka Vuskovic begged to go to Brighton in order to get starting minutes with a smaller (but still great) Premier League side.
Bergvall was throwing quite the stink about his own minutes set to dwindle further after Spurs were linked to Sandro Tonali and Mateus Fernandes, and once the Lilywhites secured the blockbuster swoop for Roberto De Zerbi's two dream gets, Nottingham Forest and Newcastle United were pushing hard for a deal that seemed imminent.
As much as De Zerbi gets accused for having a big ego over his picks, while he did make it clear that he did not want Bergvall if Bergie did not want to stay, he did an amazing job of convincing the Swedish international to stay against some odds. And the decision to start Bergvall against Brentford on Matchday 1 and then keep playing him when he could despite a disastrous season debut was also a feather in De Zerbi's cap that he believes in young talent.
Lucas Bergvall has looked sharp when he does play
Lucas Bergvall has not gotten to play much, and that won't change with Mateus Fernandes finally at the base of the midfield and clicking next to Sandro Tonali. But in his last few games since starting for both Spurs and Sweden, Bergvall has looked as good as he was in the 2024/25 season as a box to box midfielder, dominating as a ball carrier and ball winner.
Meanwhile, Tottenham Hotspur did sell a young and decently talented midfielder in Pape Matar Sarr, sending the Senegalese midfielder on loan to Juventus with an option to buy for nearly 30 million euros. Sarr is not doing much in Turin, as expected, so that loan is unlikely to be bought, but Spurs saved a few million in wages and in the loan fee to send out a player who would not have gotten a lick of minutes.
Because if Spurs are having a hard time fitting in Bergvall despite his excellence - and Rodrigo Bentancur, too - then there was no way Sarr was going to get minutes. Sarr played well at times last season before Thomas Frank gave up on him, but Roberto De Zerbi was spot on about him, too. Sarr just does not have the quality to play in his system that is heavily based on possession, and he is showing that by barely treading water in Serie A with Juventus.
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